Speedqueens

Monday, 5 December 2016

Christine Cole,
who also raced as Christine Gibson, was an Australian touring car veteran,
whose career spanned three decades.

She took part
in nine Bathurst 500/1000 races between 1968 and 1984. Her team-mates included
Glenn Seton, Sandra Bennett andMarie-Claude Beaumont. She drove a variety of cars, including
a Nissan Pulsar, Ford Falcon, Mini and Holden Monaro. Her first try at the
event was in 1968, in a Mini. She was part of an all-girl team with Midge
Whiteman, whose second time at Bathurst it was. This happened in only her
second year of racing: she began in 1967, with a Mini.

Christine was
from a family of racers, and it was not surprising that she got into the sport.
An early boyfriend raced Minis, and lent her a car. Her first season was spent
in a women’s championship based at Oran Park. She won every round of the
championship apart from the first one, in which she was third.

Her second Hardie-Ferodo
500 was at the wheel of a Fiat 125, in another ladies’ team with Lynne Keefe.
They did not finish. Christine later described how the small, light Fiat was
pulled across the track in the wake of the bigger cars.

In 1970, she
used one of the bigger cars herself, a Holden Torana. She and Sandra Bennett
were a more accomplished thirteenth overall, driving for the Holden Dealer Team.
The same driver pairing tackled the Sandown Three Hour 250, but it is not clear
whether or not they finished.

She took a
break in 1971; this year, she married fellow racer, Fred Gibson, returning as
Christine Gibson.

A second ride
in the 500 in a Torana in 1972, this time with Pat Peck as a team-mate, led to
a DNF. The following year, she switched allegiance to Alfa Romeo, driving a GTV
2000 in the big endurance races. Christine and Sue Ransom did not finish the
Hardie-Ferodo 500 or the Phillip Island 500.

She was then
absent from Bathurst for a couple of seasons, partly due to a sabbatical from
motorsport, and, for 1975 at least, to concentrate on the Australian Touring
Car Championship. She was still “in” with the Alfa Romeo team, and drove the
GTV to fifth overall in the series, with four class wins. This was her best
result in the ATCC.

Away from
Bathurst, she competed on and off in Australian Touring Cars, later, often for
her husband Fred Gibson’s team. Her best season for this was 1975, when she was
fifth overall after winning the 2000cc class four times and remaining a regular
feature in the overall top ten. Her car was an Alfa Romeo GTV 2000.

During her
absence from the Hardie-Ferodo 500, the French driver, Marie-Claude Beaumont,
had stolen her place as the premier female Bathurst racer. In 1975, she was
sixth in the 500, driving an Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 with John Leffler. On
Christine’s return to the 500 the following year, they teamed up, in an Alfa
Romeo Alfetta GTAm, but sadly did not finish.

Christine retired from active competition for the rest of
the 1970s, only to return in 1981. That year, she drove a King George Tavern
Ford Falcon in endurance races, with Joe Moore. In spite of her lack of current
seat time, she took her “top lady” honours back from Marie-Claude Beaumont,
with a sixth place. The same driver pairing was tenth in the Hang Ten 400.

In 1983 and 1984, Christine was a works Nissan driver,
alongside her husband, Fred. As part of the Australian Endurance Championship,
she drove a Pulsar with Bob Muir in the 1983 500, but did not finish, due to a
mainshaft failure. She did not finish the Sandown round of the AEC either,

The same year, she took part in some races in the AMSCAR
championship, driving a Bluebird.

She used the Pulsar for both series in 1984, and managed
eleventh overall in AMSCAR. She drove in the 500 again with the experienced
Glenn Seton, did not finish, due to a broken half-shaft.

1984 was her last season of competition. She has remained
active in Australian motorsport, as an administrator and organiser, and is
still remembered as the First Lady of Bathurst.

Saturday, 26 November 2016

Mary Handley-Page was one of a
group of British female drivers who were part of works teams for British
manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Her family was involved in
engineering; her father, Frederick Handley-Page, gave his name to a series of
aircraft, and his company built the famous Halifax Bomber. Mary was his youngest
daughter, born in 1923 and originally christened Patricia.

As a young woman, she rode horses
and hunted to hounds. Equestrianism has proved to be a surprisingly good
training for rally drivers, the best example being Pat Moss.

Her first major appearance seems
to have been the 1956 RAC Rally, driving a Rover. Her co-driver was Jo
Ashfield. They were second in the Ladies’ standings. The pair rallied together
again on the Tulip Rally, sitting in the opposite seats. The car was a
Standard, and they were 169th overall.

Mary returned to the Tulip Rally
in 1957, at the wheel of a Sunbeam Mark III. She was back in the driver’s seat,
with Francoise Wilton Clarke on the maps. They finished, in 134th
place.

She was part of the works Sunbeam
team from 1958 to 1960, driving one for their ladies’ team, with other female
drivers. For the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally, she was the leader of a three-woman
Sunbeam team, with Lola Grounds
and Doreen Reece. Mary and Lola were a good team. As a duo, they were 21st
in the 1958 Tulip Rally, in a Rapier. Mary was then sixteenth in the Alpine
Rally in the summer.

Lola had moved to the Ford team
for 1959, and Mary had a new co-driver in Daphne Freeman, who had got into
motorsport through her work as Stirling Moss’s secretary. The new pairing
entered the Monte, with Joyce Howard as a third driver, but had an accident and
could not finish. As a two-woman team, Mary and Daphne were 39th in
the Tulip Rally, again in a Sunbeam Rapier.

Away from rallying proper, Mary
was part of a team of female Rootes Group drivers sent to prove to the Belgian
motorsport authorities that a Hillman Minx was able to manage 15,000 miles of
bad Belgian pavé. Averaging 40mph, the team covered the distance in three weeks
during the Rallye des Routes Pavées. The team included Nancy
Mitchell, Sheila
van Damm, Patricia Ozanne and Francoise Clarke. They were said to be
responsible for a sharp spike in continental Hillman Minx sales.

At the beginning of 1960, Mary
went back to the co-driver’s seat for the Monte, assisting Jimmy Ray to
eleventh place. It was quite unusual for her to be part of a mixed team. With a
new co-driver again, Nesta Gilmour, she finished 105th in the Tulip
Rally, in a Rapier. The Alpine Rally was another of her favoured events, and
she was 27th in 1960, co-driven by Patricia Ozanne.

She continued to drive private
Sunbeams in 1961, including a Rapier on the Monte Carlo Rally, with Pauline
Mayman and Daphne Freeman. They had been running well, but a puncture
prevented them from claiming a penalty-free run. Mary and Pauline drove the
same car on that year’s Tulip Rally, and were 43rd overall.

For the 1962 Monte, she co-drove
forPatricia
Ozanne, in a Mini, which Patricia had bought from
the works BMC team the previous year. They started from Warsaw, but do not
appear to have finished. This was Mary’s last major rally.

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Cora Schumacher has raced in a number of one-make series in
Germany. At one point, she was the highest-paid female racing driver in the
world.

Cora came into motorsport quite late. She married Ralf
Schumacher, then a Formula One driver, in 2001. Her own racing career began in
2004, at the wheel of a BMW Mini.

For her debut, she was part of the celebrity team in the
Mini Challenge in Germany, with four other drivers who were all TV presenters.
She qualified in 22nd place out of 24 for her first race, at
Lausitz, and finished in 18th. Her part-season that year gave her a
27th place. Many had been rather disparaging about her going racing,
given her “F1 WAG” status and former work as a model, but she kept out of
trouble and surprised a few people. One of her most vocal critics was former
DTM racer, Ellen
Lohr, who made remarks about Cora’s breast implants adding weight to the
car.

She surprised even more onlookers in 2005, when she returned
to the Mini Challenge and scored her first top ten, and eighth place.
Unfortunately, her season was curtailed by a nasty accident, which caused her
to sit out much of it. She was 34th in the championship.

After that, she signed up for the
2006 SEAT Leon Supercopa alongside Christina Surer, in a deal that was said to
make her the highest-paid woman driver in the world, and the fourth
highest-paid German driver, according to the German press. This was billed as
the first step on the way to a drive in the DTM. Cora and Christina shared the
car, and Cora ended up only racing in two of the rounds.

After her short run in the
Supercopa, she took a break from motorsport. In 2010, she returned to the MINI
Challenge, with Lechner Racing, for the second half of the season. Her best
finish was thirteenth, at Hockenheim, and she was 19th overall.

Her finishing positions improved a
little in 2011, and she was more consistent. She just missed the top ten on three
occasions, all at Hockenheim, finishing eleventh each time. She was 14th
overall.

In 2012, she drove in the Dubai 24
Hours in a MINI, winning class A2. She and her four team-mates were 25th
overall. She also spent some time testing a Chevrolet Camaro GT3 car. For most
of the season, she raced in the MINI Trophy, scoring six top-ten finishes, the
best being an eighth at the Red Bull Ring. This was good for 15th in the
championship.

Another break from motorsport
followed, during which time she did more modelling, appeared on the German
version of Strictly Come Dancing (in 2015) and split up with Ralf Schumacher.
They were divorced in 2015.

In 2016, she made a comeback, and
signed up for the DTC (Deutsche Tourenwagen Cup), racing a Mini in the 1600
Production class. She joined the championship for the second half of the
season, and scored two class seconds in her first races, at the Red Bull Ring.
She was also third at the Nürburgring, and was sixth overall in class.

Cora’s racing plans at the moment
include the 2017 Dubai 24 Hours, in an Audi TT.

Thursday, 17 November 2016

Joan LaCosta was a flamboyant French
driver (apparently), mostly noted as a daredevil and speed triallist in the USA
in the 1920s. Her usual car seems to have been a Miller special.

Joan’s origins are obscure. She
appears in the mid-1920s, and by 1925, was proclaimed as the “women’s
international champion”, as reported in the Santa Cruz Evening News. The
Danville Bee, a Virginia newspaper, elaborated on this, claiming that she won
her title in a women’s championship meeting at Indianapolis that year. No
details of such a meeting are forthcoming, and Indianapolis was not a welcoming
venue to women drivers. The event must have been held somewhere else. Reports
from this time suggest that she was most active in Florida. Later, she would
claim to have been racing on dirt tracks since about 1923, but this is proving
hard to confirm.

There is more concrete evidence of
one of the most dramatic incidents of her short career, from 1926. Whilst
practicing for a speed record run on Daytona Beach in April, her car caught
fire, travelling at about 130mph. The cause of the fire was a broken fuel line.
A photographer was on hand to capture Joan leaping from the car, as she steered
it into the sea in an attempt to douse the flames. She was not seriously hurt.
Only a few days later, she made the record run in a different car, and set a
series of new female records, driving at 138mph. The dramatic photos were
reprinted in newspapers all across the United States.

Later in the year, she made
another record run at Jacksonville beach, also in Florida. This time, she got
up to 145mph, smashing her own record. The car was a Miller Special, although
not much detail about it is available.

Her talents did not stop with
record-breaking. In 1926, Joan entered a match race on a half-mile dirt track,
as part of an IMCA (International Motor Competition Association) event in
Toronto, Canada. IMCA was the only sanctioning body that allowed women to race
at all. She won, beating Louis Disbrow. The two had considerable history,
having raced against each other twice, in Canada and Mississippi. The same year
as their Toronto battle, Disbrow apparently led a protest against Joan’s
inclusion in a Lakewood starting grid. His objection was overturned, partly
because her speed-trial times proved that she was faster than several of the
male entrants.

IMCA’s leading promoter of the
time was J. Alex Sloan, who believed in motor racing as spectacle, and used
several woman drivers to add controversy and a touch of glamour to IMCA
meetings. At the same time as he was promoting Joan, he was also using Elfrieda
Mais, usually as a stunt performer, although she did race occasionally. The row
with Disbrow must have had him rubbing his hands together with glee. Disbrow’s
position on female drivers was also rather puzzling; his own career had been
launched in the 1900s, as a riding mechanic to Joan Newton Cuneo, the first
notable American female racer.

Her activities in 1927 are
unclear. Her name does not appear on any published start lists for IMCA
meetings, but she may well have continued to race at fairgrounds and
horse-racing tracks.

In 1928, Joan won a women’s race
in Milwaukee, but this was one of her last triumphs. At the end of the year,
she announced her intention to retire and take up flying.

This did not happen, although she
continued to appear in the news due to a conviction for robbery in 1929. She attempted
to steal jewellery from another woman, using a replica gun in a hold-up
situation. In defence, she claimed that she had lost “all of her money” at a
horse race, and was unemployed. During her court appearance, she fainted and
burst into tears of remorse.

By 1931, she had married a meat
salesman called Joseph Maurer. At the time, she worked in the offices of a
stationery firm, and pronounced herself “through” with both motor racing and
aviation.

Joan LaCosta was almost certainly
not her birth name. Marriage records show that Joseph Maurer married a woman
named Marion Martins in 1931. There was a racing driver named Marion Martin or
Martins active in Canada in the summer of 1925, just before Joan LaCosta
appeared. She raced against Elfrieda Mais three times, winning once, over a
mile, at Regina. Her car was a Frontenac-Ford. She also took part in open races
at Edmonton, and set a speed record at Toronto. At the Canadian National
exhibition at Toronto the following year, Joan LaCosta makes her confirmed
debut. On her arrest for robbery, she was named as Marion Carver. Reports of
her trial mention parents living in Memphis, and a former husband named Waldo
Martins.

Her original nationality is not
clear; she was probably not French, but American or perhaps Canadian. Given the
showmanly nature of IMCA’s promoted events, it is not completely surprising
that some drivers hid behind noms de
course, or exaggerated their origins to make themselves stand out. There
was perhaps an element of hiding from a disapproving family or a grudging
husband.

She and Maurer had children at
some point. Her life after her marriage was spent as a private individual.

Sunday, 6 November 2016

The Women’s Automobile and Sports Association was one of the
foremost women’s motor clubs in Britain between the world wars, and the one
with the greatest emphasis on competition.

It was founded in 1927 by a group of female motor
enthusiasts, encouraged by their experiences in the Wood Green & District
MC women-only trial, held in January of that year.

The club’s first event was in 1929. It was a night running
of the Exeter Trial, an established trial route usually run by the MCC. The
route was 300 miles long, and included three “observed sections”: two
hillclimbs and a starting and stopping test. Thirty-eight cars took the start,
with seventeen of those being driven by all-female crews. The drivers included Paddie
Naismith in a Ballot, Patricia McOstrich in an Alvis, Victoria
Worsley and Mrs Dobson in their MG Midgets, Lady Iris Capell in an Alvis
and future RAC Rally winner, Kitty
Brunell, in a Talbot.

In 1930, the club held its own Land’s End Trial, another
classic MCC route. Twenty-five drivers took part. Among them were Brooklands
stalwarts like Elsie Wisdom,
in a Frazer Nash, and Irene
Schwedler in her MG Midget. Kitty Brunell was another entrant, as was
Florence Scudamore in a Triumph, and founder member Lilian Roper in her AC. It
is not recorded who won the event, but Miss Roper only just managed to finish,
due to engine trouble. Lilian was one of the senior members of the club, who
had been active in motorsport since before WWI and had previously been the
Treasurer of another Ladies’ Motor Club.

WASA members would go on to distinguish themselves in other
trials. Florence Scudamore won the Ladies’ Prize in the 1931 London-Gloucester
Trial, in her Triumph, and Joan Weekes succeeded her as the ladies’ champion in
1932, driving a Ford. After 1932, Florence Scudamore usually drove a Singer,
supported by the works team.

Margaret
Allan, who was a race-winner at Brooklands and drove at Le Mans, began her
career in WASA trials, using her parents’ big Lagonda. She had watched one of
the events as a spectator, and was initially unimpressed with the standard of
driving. This spurred her on to have a go herself, as she believed she could
win.

Lord Wakefield presented WASA with a trophy in 1930. This
was awarded between 1932 and 1938, for the club member judged to have performed
the best over the year. The trophy was awarded for penalty-free runs in the
Monte Carlo Rally (Mrs Montague-Johnstone in 1932) or for Brooklands heroics
(Mrs Wood, 1938), or for the highest scores in the club’s own trials. Mrs Wood
kept hold of the trophy during the war, and it was she that gave it to the
British Women Racing Drivers’ Club in 1973. It is now awarded for the most meritorious
performance for a woman in motorsport during the year, if warranted.

By 1932, WASA was accepted as a bona fide motor club, and
was invited to take part in the Inter-Club Meeting at Brooklands. Grace Hedges
and Irene Schwedler upheld the honour of the club by taking first and third
place in the Sports Long Handicap.

The club carried on organising its own trials, as well as
social events. A Cotswold Trial was held at least twice, in 1933 and 1937, as
well as a WASA “Day in the Hills” in 1934, which ran in the Chilterns. Margaret
Allan, Doreen Evans, Florence Scudamore and Morna
Vaughan were among the winners of First Class Awards in the trial, which
was also open to male drivers.

The 1937 Cotswold Trial was also a mixed affair. Frazer Nash
cars predominated, with five of the awards given to Frazer Nash drivers. Two of
these were for Midge Wilby and Miss E.V. Watson in the team trophy, and Miss
Watson also won the Iris Capell Trophy, donated by the founding Lady member.
Midge Wilby earned a First Class Award in the trial.

Motorsport ceased for the duration of WWII. After the war
ended in 1945, WASA did not regroup. Some of its members, including Morna
Vaughan and Irene Schwedler (now known as Charlotte Sadler), continued to race
and rally for some time. At least one other all-female motor club was formed,
but it did not last. The closest parallel to WASA today is the British Women
Racing Drivers’ Club, founded in the 1960s, which keeps a link to WASA through
the Wakefield Trophy.

Monday, 31 October 2016

Jacquie Bond-Smith started
in club motorsport in her father's car, a “Wavendon Wombat” special, in 1960. She
was then known as Jacquie Cook. The Wombat was an 1172cc clubman’s car built by
her father, Arthur Cook. Results for Jacquie in this car are proving tough to
track down. Both she and her sister, Joey, raced it on occasion.

Some time in the early 1960s, she
married John Bond-Smith, a racer and businessman. At the same time, she seems
to have made her way up through the club racing ranks, and was awarded the
Chris Bristow Trophy by the BRDC in 1964, in recognition of “the most promising
performance at Silverstone.” This may well have been in a Ford Cortina, or possibly
a Lotus single-seater.

She definitely did race a Cortina
in 1965, a Lotus model. She drove it in some rounds of the BSCC, and secured a
best finish of tenth at Snetterton, followed by seventeenth place in the St
Marys Trophy at Goodwood. For the next round, she drove a Ford Galaxie, at
Silverstone, but did not finish. It was her only BSCC outing of the year in
that car, although she did race it in the European Touring Car Championship. In
August, she was thirteenth in the Snetterton 500km, winning her class.

In club races, she used a Lotus
Elan. In this car, she was third in a GT race at Silverstone in October,
winning her class.

In 1966, she returned to sportscar
racing, campaigning a Lotus 23 in British club races. She was twelfth in one
race at Silverstone, just behind sister Joey in the Wombat.

Jacquie’s big project for 1967 was
the FLIRT all-girl racing team. FLIRT stood for “First Ladies International
Racing Team”, and it was made up of Jacquie and Joey, plus Jacqui Smith,
another young driver who had had some success in British club events in a
Hillman Imp. Their car was a Mini Marcos, supplied by the Marcos factory. The
team picked up quite a lot of publicity, with a Pathé film being made of the
three of them testing at Castle Combe.

FLIRT made three appearances in
the World Manufacturers’ Championship in Europe. Jacquie and Joey were the
chosen drivers. They did not finish the Nürburgring 1000km due to engine
problems, but they got to the end of the Mugello Grand Prix, in 37th
place. Later in the season, Jacquie drove the Nürburgring 500km solo, and was 21st
overall, fourth in class. Joey drove a sister car, but did not finish. The FLIRT
team may well have done some more British races, but the results are proving
elusive.

As well as her FLIRT activities,
Jacquie raced in the British Sportscar Championship. She was seventeenth in the
Silverstone round, in a Porsche 904, and may also have raced a Ferrari 250LM
belonging to her husband.

She disappears from the entry
lists at the end of 1967. Not long after, her marriage broke up. After her
racing career ended, she adopted horseriding as her sport of choice.

Friday, 28 October 2016

She
was quite sporty from an early age. In common with many other speedqueens, she
was initially drawn towards horses. She only got interested in motorsport after
trying karting on holiday, in 2008.

She began her senior career in
2012, aged 17, in Aussie Racing Cars, after three years of karting. She drove a
Yamaha-engined Commodore in four rounds.

In 2013, she entered the
Australian Porsche Carerra Cup, a first for a female driver. She was supported
by the “Cool Driver” youth development programme run by Fujitsu, who sponsored
her, and had been supporting her for the last two years. In her first season,
she held her own in a large field (the winner was Craig Baird), and was 19thoverall.

In 2014, she had a second season
in the Porsche Cup. She got into the top ten five times, and had a best finish
of sixth, at Phillip Island. She was 15thoverall. In addition to this, she was
one of only two drivers to have a 100% finishing record, the other being Craig
Baird.

In 2015, she moved into V8
Supercars, driving a Ford Falcon for Paul Morris’s team, in the Dunlop
development series. Her best finish was twelfth, at Townsville. Towards the end
of the season, she did improve: her best meeting overall was the last one, at
Sydney Motorsport Park, where she was thirteenth and fourteenth.

She also gained a lot of attention
for her entry into the Bathurst 1000 with Simona
de Silvestro, the first all-female team for many years. The team was run by
Prodrive Australia, and they were 21st in their "Supergirls" Ford
Falcon, after an accident by Renee lost them a lot of time.

A second season in the Dunlop
series followed in 2016, still with Paul Morris Motorsport and driving the
Falcon. She repeated her twelfth place best-finish at Adelaide and Sandown. It
was another challenging season, but she was a steady finisher, and was 21st
in the championship, just behind the other female driver in the series, Chelsea
Angelo in her Dragon Racing Holden Commodore. Her car was outclassed by the
newer models on the grid and it was hard to keep on the pace. Before the end of
the season, Renee made the decision to leave Paul Morris Motorsport, in order
to find a new deal and concentrate on her wildcard entry into the Bathurst
1000.

Renee teamed up once more with
Simona de Silvestro for the Bathurst 1000. This time, they were driving a
Nissan Altima for the Australian Nissan team. They raced as the “Harvey Norman
Supergirls”, and were fourteenth overall. Their race was free of major incident in a
race of high attrition.

Renee’s long-term aim is to
compete full-time as a professional driver. At the time of writing, she is
looking for a race seat for 2017.